Buffy Ficlets
by xfirefly9x
Summary: Buffy. A collection of short fics based around the characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Various characters and pairings.
1. A Red Mark

**A Red Mark**

Prompt: #002 Bathroom  
Notes: Written for 100situations

"Buffy? What's that red mark on your neck?" Giles asked the Slayer, peering over at her. He took his glasses off and promptly began cleaning them with the corner of his grey tweed shirt as he awaited her response.

"Wha-?" Buffy instinctively reached up and gingerly touched the area on her neck where some demon goop had come into contact with her skin, on the previous night. Her fingers brushed against inflamed skin and she paled considerably.

Whatever it was, it really wasn't supposed to be there. "God, no!" The Slayer whispered under her breath distraughtly and cussed silently.

Without a second glance at her curious Watcher, Buffy raced for the bathroom, her hand covering her neck, partially in horror, but for the most part so no one else would see it.

Ducking for cover into one of the stalls, Buffy waited for some of the bathrooms' occupants to leave and then, convinced that they were gone, slowly made her way over to the mirror.

As Giles had said, there was a deep, crimson mark on her neck. Remembering the last time she had come into contact with demon goop, Buffy sighed in relief. There hadn't been any marks left behind then, meaning that it couldn't be that, again.

Buffy frowned as she tried to figure out what it was from. Then she remembered. She had dropped in at Spike's on the way home from slaying the night before…


	2. Who's Testing Who?

**Who's Testing Who?**

Prompt: #057 Test

Notes: Written for 100situations.

"So, what is this exactly?" Buffy Summers asked her new Watcher, coolly. "Some new test to see how powerful I am with the whole slayer thing going on? Cause if you want to find out if I can fly, I'll tell you now – I can't. It must have something to do with the 'no feathers' thing. Or – or was there something else wanted to test me for?

"Disease? Mental illness? Suicidal tendencies? Vampirism? Any of the above?" She paused and stared at the weedy man in front of her who was gaping at her, obviously overwhelmed by her outburst. He was dressed in a stuffy plaid suit that, to the Slayer, appeared to be from some other time era way back in the age of the dinosaurs.

As Buffy watched, he reached up to readjust his glasses, wiping them clean with the edge of his coat pocket before placing them back on his nose and gaping over at her some more.

"Um…hello? Watcher-man? You okay there?" Buffy prompted him, deciding that unless she did something to snap him out of his staring trance, they'd be spending an awful long time together doing the equal to zilch, where zilch included gaping and staring and looking at each other strangely. As fun as it sounded, Buffy had plans for the night to meet up with Willow and Xander at the Bronze.

The Watcher finally nodded to her, slowly and unsure of himself. "Yes…uh…tomorrow. I'll see you here promptly at 8 am."

"For tests?" Buffy asked derisively.

"For tests," the Watcher confirmed with a weak nod.

"Okay, then. I'll see you then." Buffy flashed him an amused smile and hurried outside, leaving the man to stare at her retreating back. As she disappeared from sight, a question formed in his mind.

Was Buffy the one who was going to be tested or was he?


	3. I'll Take Unbelievable

_**I'll Take Unbelievable**_

"Buffy!"

She glanced up and fixed him with an infuriated glare. "What is it, Spike?"

"Nothin'." Spike offered her a smug grin and clasped his hands together loosely at his front. He continued to walk along as if his little prank was no big deal, like it was merely a simple conversation piece. His sentiments on the topic were not shared.

Buffy let out a grunt of frustration and wrung her hands, making it look like she was strangling an invisible person.

"Something the matter, love?" he asked.

If anything, her anger grew.

"'cause if there is," Spike went on," I think I just found the perfect way to beat down that nigglin' feeling you got."

"Don't even go there, Spike. I'm not sleeping with you again... Oh!"

Up ahead, two vampires moved leisurely through the tombstones. One happened to be a guy with blond hair. It wasn't peroxide blond but it would have to do.

"I got the one that looks like you," Buffy told him, running off towards them.

It took Spike a moment to catch on. When he did, he frowned and raced after her. "Oy! Come on, now! That's not nice!"

Buffy staked her vampire and turned to look at him. "You are unbelievable Did you know that?" She applied a roundhouse kick to the second vampire that sent it sprawling on the ground. As it tried to get up, she embedded her stake in its heart.

Spike winced. "I'll take unbelievable."

_fin._


	4. Excessive Broodiness

_**Excessive Broodiness**_

"This needs to stop!" Cordelia announces as she marches into Angel's office.

Without moving his head, he looks at her. Confused doesn't begin to describe how he feels. "What does?"

"This!" Cordelia says, throwing her hands outward to gesture around them. "It's too broody and dark and Angel! Did I mention the excessive broodiness?"

Frowning, Angel leans back in his chair. "You did mention that, yeah."

"Well it's true! You're too broody. You need to stop and get the hell over it already."

"I'll add that to my schedule," he jokes.

Cordelia obviously isn't in the right state of mind for joking around. "I'm serious," she says. "I'm worried about you. We all are."

"Well don't be. I'm fine." Letting out a heavy sigh, Angel pushes out of his chair. "Please. Leave me be. Didn't you have some party to go to tonight?"

She ignores everything he says to her. "You need to leave Buffy in the past."

"What?"

"You heard me."

Angel scowls. "You're overstepping a line there, Cordy. You think you know what's going on but you really don't."

"Enlighten me then, oh broody one. I'm all ears." She cringes. "Well, not all ears. I'm speaking metaphorically with the all ears thing."

"Right." Angel says. "Go to your party, Cordelia."

"But Angel!"

He puts his hands on her shoulders and gently turning her around, guides her out of his office and through to the front door. "Go have some fun."

_fin._


	5. Not Only Human

(_Buffy/Angel)_

_**Not Only Human**_

_You told me that the daylight burns you  
And that the sunrise was enough to kill you.  
I said maybe you're a vampire.  
You said it's quite possible, I feel truly dead inside_  
"Trouble Breathing", Alkaline Trio

"Angel?" She's cautious as she approaches him.

He's shirtless, wearing only a pair of black drawstring pants and a confused look on his face. "Where am I?"

"Sunnydale. Remember? There was that demon and then the apocalypse nearly came again and.. well."

"Am I still human?"

Buffy's expression falters. She drops her head a little and focuses on the ground. "In the sense that you have a human body, yes. In the sense of being human, more than the other thing, not so much. You're a vampire again, Angel."

"And the spell? The one that made me human?"

"Reversed. We had to do this thing with time and looped back before the spell. Which is to say, the ingredients we gathered to make you human.. they were destroyed."

"But the amulet! There was only that one left-"

"I know." Buffy nods. "I'm sorry, Angel. I... There has to be another way. And we'll find it."

Angel crosses his arms over his front as if protecting himself from a chill. He shakes his head and all the sadness from her news shows on his face.

"Until then," Buffy says, "it's back to staying up all night and sleeping during the day. You're one of the 'cool kids' again."

"Great." His tone suggests it's anything but great.

A sad look on her face, Buffy nods. "Yeah. Great."

_fin._


	6. The Rose

_(Buffy & Dawn)_

_**The Rose**_

_To your grave, I spoke  
Holding a red, red rose  
Gust of freezing cold air  
Whispers to me, you're gone_  
- "A New Hope", Broken Iris.

Her feet crunch snow. The air is chilly and a sudden gust sends her grasping for the edges of her jacket and pulling it closer around her middle. The rose in her right hand is nearly knocked from her grip; she tightens her fingers around the stem just in time to catch it.

She continues on. One foot in front of the other. One hand holding the rose and the other wrapped around her stomach to shield herself from the cold. Another step. Another. She dodges a few trees and another few gravestones. And then she sees it.

"Buffy." It's just a whisper but her breath forms white mist in the air before her. She kneels beside the grave.

It's just like she remembers it from last time. Cold. Grey. Taunting her with it's stillness and it's words. Buffy Summers.

Her heart lurches. The rose slips from her fingers and bounces once, twice and then settles on the snow at the foot of the grave. "Buffy," she says again. This time her voice is a little firmer and louder. Hoarser.

A tear leaks from one eye; she brushes it away with the back of one hand. She stares at the fallen rose. It's brilliant red against the white of snow, like blood seeping through a tissue and staining it's every fibre.

Beneath the dirt, her sister lies. Gone from this world. Onto the next. It all seems so unreal, like a bad dream. She knows better than to cling onto that hope.

She pushes up from the ground a few minutes later. The cold is beginning to seep into her clothes and through her jacket. Time to go.

"I'll be back, Buffy," she promises quietly. She takes a last look at the rose and then the gravestone and then turns and walks away, head bent against the wind and fresh tears in her eyes.

_fin._


	7. Dear Diary

_Dear Diary,_

Buffy's off with Angel _again_ and presumably angsting over something. They're always in the middle of something big and important like that. That's what Buffy says. If you ask me, she's just being dramatic. I mean, how many times does a girl need to kill her boyfriend anyway? There's a point when it just seems ridiculous.

Yeah, she's the Slayer. And Angel is a vampire. But why can't they figure out some other way to do things, that doesn't end with death or crying? Willow is so much cooler with her witchy stuff. If she was dating Angel she would find another way to be with him and not have to kill him every few months. She could do a spell to restore his spell permanently, maybe. Well, I guess not. She would have done that by now for Buffy if she could. But she'd find some other way to do things. Something more effective than Buffy's ways.

Anyway. While Buffy's doing her thing with Angel, I'm stuck here with Xander and Anya again. Anya started on about playing Life again, so I faked a headache and so am here, writing to you, my faithful diary. I would go insane without you to rant to. No one else listens.

-Dawn


	8. Never Will Be

_Angelus/Buffy_

_**Never Will Be**_

"I'll break you," he warns. It's not like she doesn't already know but it can't help to tell her again. And again. And again. Even if every time he tells her, she refuses to listen.

"That's a chance I'm willing to take," she says simply. And with those words, the conversation is over and they start talking about happier things, things like going out to get ice cream and her falling asleep on top of homework yet another time.

The truth is, he's worried. He has been worried since they first met, since he introduced himself to her. What concerns him most is that she refuses to pay attention. Whenever he breaches the topic, she brushes it off like he's just saying words that hold no meaning or power over reality.

But the words he says are important. He tells her, always, that he'll be there for her, but at the same time, he knows he can't. It's too dangerous. For her, for himself. He finds himself falling for him more and more with each moment they spend together. And that is not something either of them can afford, because it will end badly.

They can't be together.

That is simple fact. He is a vampire. Immortal. She is human and a Slayer, and ignoring the fact that they should be mortal enemies, her calling may end her life sooner than she should leave the world.

And even if she survives being a Slayer, she will die of old age, in such a short amount of time that to spend it together… well. He'll still look young when she's old and wrinkly. She doesn't deserve that. What she deserves is a chance to fall in love with someone – someone else, someone human – who will be there for her and will grow old with her.

He is not that someone and never will be.

So, he pushes harder. "I'll break you in any way I can," he tells her. "You'll hurt. It isn't worth it."

"Don't tell me what's worth my time, Angel," she says, and he feels a stab in the heart at the way she says his name. Like it means something to her. Like it matters. She's already in deep, as deep as he is, and there is no way that this is going to end well.

He can hope, dream, pray, that things will work out, but he never did like to lie to himself. And he hates lying to her. So he tells it how it is, while she ignores the facts and continues to live in denial.

That's how it continues on, until one day, when he decides. It's time. Time to go. Time for him to move on. More importantly, time for her to move on. He's not sure he can move on.

After the past few months, the hurt, the heartache, and some of it because of him, he has realized that they are stuck in a pattern that will never be fixed. There will always be pieces missing, or a piece that is far too big or shaped incorrectly to slot in. And forcing the pieces will not make it better.

If anything, his staying in Sunnydale will make things worse for her. It's time for him to leave.

His heart aches at the thought of leaving her, but lately he has seen changes in her. She is growing. She is no longer a naïve school girl with super powers she doesn't yet know what to do with. She is the Slayer now and she is becoming one of the most powerful and strong women that he has met.

There's a confidence about her now that she didn't have before. She was confident back then, sure, but this is different. This is confident on a whole new level. She is sliding into her own skin and doesn't just fit but is killing it.

She'll get over him. As much as it hurts him to think about, she will. He may not get over her, but he'll live knowing he did the right thing. He won't regret.

And so, after he's made sure she's okay, he slips away quietly into the night. The darkness surrounds him like a cloak. He disappears quickly into the shadows. For a moment, he remains there. He looks back out, at her looking for him.

There is pain in her eyes, in her stance, in everything she is. But he can tell she'll be all right. Without him, she will more than just survive, she will thrive and become an even more amazing person and Slayer. Her life will be better.

And in time, he'll just fade away.

_fin._


	9. The Blackest of Blacks

_**The Blackest of Blacks**_

Bloodlust. A rich little girl, veins pumping blood, and the adrenalin in her system making it all the more sweet. Desire and a yearning so strong he's surprised he hasn't caved and eaten her already.

The monster in him is awake and on edge. Alert and prepared to strike at any moment. For now he keeps it in check.

Soon he will give it free reign and the girl's situation will turn from bleak to worse, austere, charcoal slates to the blackest of blacks, impenetrable and deep.

She won't escape.

She'll barely have time to scream.

He licks his lips. Dinner time is so close. Nearer and nearer by the second – and he won't eat til the time is right. A second girl appears in the entrance to the alleyway and her scream when she sees him, vamped out, her friend in his clutches, marks the time.

He drinks deep and bathes in the gurgling screams from his victim and the louder, more frantic screams from the friend. Her screams fade as she runs.

He leaves quickly; the girl must have attracted some attention by now.

His thirst is less, and there's a smile on his blood-tinged lips.

_fin._


	10. Road of Redemption

_Buffy/Angel_

_**Road of Redemption**_

I had once thought there was no room in my heart for anything but pain. I worked toward redemption, walked a lonely, empty road. I'd thought that's how I would spend the rest of eternity. Then I met her. Buffy.

She didn't know I was there at first. I made sure of it. I got to know her from afar, by watching her, and I never expected that one day, we'd talk. Of course, we soon did.

And once we had, I began to question the depths of my emotions. Was I still capable of love? Am I? Should I be?

It didn't matter what the answer was - still doesn't - because I am a killer. She deserved, deserves, so much better.

I am a vampire. She's a slayer.

We aren't right together, even if it feels like she is the best thing to ever happen to me. Together, we are more bent and broken than when we are alone.

We soon learned this, and that we weren't each other's strength. Not really. We were each other's weakness - and eventual downfall, if we allowed it.

And down, we fell, until the day I walked away. It was the most difficult choice I had made in too long to remember.

It was the right choice.

And, it was then that I realised all that we had shared, as it eternal as it is, was leading to this point, to this realisation: There was, indeed, room in my heart. And it was a very bad idea to fill that room, given the gypsy's curse.

My purpose was redemption, I grew to realise. Not love.

_fin._


	11. Blood Sacrifice

(_Buffy, Dawn; tag to 5x22, "The Gift"_)

_**Blood Sacrifice**_

She shouldn't have died. She shouldn't have jumped off the edge to close the portal and given her life. I should have. Buffy is the Slayer. The world needs her. It doesn't need me.

And anyway, I'm the Key. This was always my purpose. Without this purpose, I am nothing but an ordinary human. I'm not needed like she is.

I should have jumped. My blood should have closed the portal, as was intended.

But Buffy... She wouldn't allow it.

Even knowing what I am, she sacrificed herself. We're not sisters, never were, but for some reason that never mattered to her. I guess maybe she thought that now I have life, and after all the memories we shared – false or not – we are family now. I like the sound of that.

We share the same blood. Even if that blood was put in me by monks or whatever when they hid me as Buffy's sister, it has become unthinkable that it was all a lie, that none of it was real. I suppose the pain I feel means I have real human emotions. I might as well be real, I guess. But I never used to be.

In any case, neither of us would allow the world to be destroyed, so one of us had to jump.

I should have known Buffy would never let me do it.

She's the hero. She saved the world. She saved me.

She should still be here, where I am, and I should be the one far down below, body bent and broken. But, here we are.

Sometimes life really sucks.

_fin._


End file.
